I don't live in Cornwall, it was reported on the news for the south west so we heard it in Devon as well. Where I am you can't book appointments for A&E or MIU by phoning 111 although one small hospital that isn't too far away has out of hours doctors based there and you can get an appointment to see them, well you could the last time I used the service which was pre pandemic.
We can also look at waiting times and people waiting for our local A&E and MIU but we can't make appointments, you turn up, get triaged and wait. It can be misleding, at the moment it says 64 in A&E but only 9 waiting to be seen which means 55 have been triaged not that they are all getting , treatment, waiting time of 1hr 17 mins is to be seen by a nurse or doctor which can be triage.
I had a similar situation with our A&E a few weeks ago, I looked at our local Devon page, MIU close to closing time and 5 people waiting to be seen at A&E, so got there and A&E for walk ins was being run by one nurse practitioner and the waiting room was full. HCA was trying to do crowd control with the drunks and she was pretty amazing with the patience of a saint. We waited about 5 hrs which isn't that bad by current standards but it could be a shock to someone going to A&E thinking there is a queue of 5 and they could be seen very quickly.
The fact remains that the health authority are saying they are expecting a very difficult Easter and appealing for people to seek help elsewhere whenever possible. The population will swell tonight and tomorrow as holidaymakers arrive.
Of course plenty of people in Cornwall will be further then 20 minutes away from a hospital or one of those on the list with limited opening times and no xray facilities.
Where I am in South Devon we have integrated care, south Devon is a leader in integrated care.